Air America 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Air America 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 24, 2025

Lionsgate is back with another 4K UHD SteelBook release that is as of the writing of this review being offered as an exclusive on Amazon. As usual when either these Amazon exclusives or Lionsgate Limited exclusives are announced, my inbox starts getting filled with a number of repeated questions, and so I will summarize the two things that seem to engender the most confusion and/or reaction from prospective consumers for those interested:

• The 1080 disc included in this package is indeed Lionsgate's long ago release from 2009


• The 4K disc does not offer any newly produced supplements, though a couple of archival pieces not included on the 1080 disc have been aggregated here (see below)


• The 4K disc repeats the 1080 disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix (i.e., no upgraded Atmos track this time)

Casey Broadwater offers an unusually interesting Air America Blu-ray review that offers a plot recap, list of supplements and Casey's reaction to the technical presentation. Casey opens his review with a great little anecdote about historical reenactors of momentous battles, and there's a coterie of European guys (mostly French and Dutch, interestingly) who do similar service for some of the famous skirmishes the battalion commanded by my Dad engaged in as they fought their way from Utah Beach to Cherbourg.

Air America 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc in this package. That old disc was just very slightly misframed at 2.34:1. Taking actual measurements from the 4K disc shows that the 4K presentation is in 2.35:1.

Air America is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. A prefatory text card offers the following information on this presentation:

The 4K scan, picture and sound restoration were done by VDM (France), using the 35mm original negative and original sound negative.

The director, Roger Spottiswoode, supervised and approved the grading.

This project was brought you by Studio Canal and supervised by Delphine Roussel, Sophie Boyer and Jean-Pierre Boiget.

This is another pretty sumptuous looking 4K upgrade from Studio Canal, though kind of surprisingly to my eyes it sure looks like the HDR / Dolby Vision grades actually tend to cool things down more than in the opposite direction, despite a glut of brightly lit outdoor material. As with the older 1080 version (one which frankly may not have been granted the same 4.0 score it received way back in 2009), flesh tones in particular here can often have a somewhat brown, dowdy look, though there is arguably more vivid suffusion here than in the older 1080 version. The HDR / Dolby Vision grades probably add the most luster to the aforementioned outdoor scenes, though there are a couple of cobalt blue graded flight sequences where new highlights are discernable. Those blue moments are just some of several where grain can be quite thick and gritty looking. Detail levels are generally appealing throughout.

Air America 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Air America features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that I evidently enjoyed at least a bit more than Casey did vis a vis the older 1080 presentation. As Casey mentions in his review, ambient environmental sounds are consistently placed throughout the side and rear channels helping to create the stifling atmosphere of the story, and several set pieces offer both some swirling immersive effects but also punchy bursts of LFE. I do part ways with Casey a bit on Charles Gross' score, which, yes, can come across as second tier Bruce Broughton or James Horner, but which I found quite enjoyable. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. A few burnt in subtitles accompany some scenes, but otherwise there are optional English and Spanish subtitles.

Air America 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: As mentioned above, the 4K UHD disc does not offer any newly produced supplements. Two brief archival pieces are included here that were not on the 1080 disc, and which I've indicated with an asterisk (*). (A 2024 trailer is also new.) More details on the previously released supplements can be found in Casey's review, linked to above. For those who keep track of such things, the SD supplements on the 1080 disc have all been upscaled to ostensible HD for the 4K UHD disc.

• Audio Commentary by Screenwriter John Eskow


• Return Flight: Revisiting Air America (HD; 22:03)


• Short Interviews with Cast and Crew* (HD; 2:12)


• Pre-Flight: The Storyboards of Air America (HD; 5:18)


• Flight Log (HD; 3:53)


• Making of Featurette* (HD; 5:36)


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:25)


• 2024 Trailer* (HD; 1:01)

The SteelBook design is handsome, with photorealistic versions of Mel and Robert on the front, with various aircraft (both flying and crashed) surrounding them. Cool blue and blue-green tones predominate on the outer panels. A Mylar O ring offers an American flag framing the focal characters. The inner panels offer a couple of memorable quotes from the film over images of Gibson and Downey, Jr. A digital copy is also included.

Air America 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As has been mentioned ad nauseum about Air America, it's hardly a model of historical accuracy and probably needs to be taken with a veritable pillar of salt, but the bantering interplay between the two leads is often quite enjoyable. Technical merits are solid and the SteelBook design winning, but there are really no substantial new supplements (or at least newly produced supplements) to speak of, for those who may be interested in making a purchase.